Coaches

He was once the face of college basketball, Hoosiers personified, a small-town kid who this spring brought a smile, a swagger and a national championship resume to the UCLA program. Yet before he even coached one practice, someone had created a Facebook page titled "Fire Steve Alford. " He was once baseball's best manager, the steady force who brought the Angels their first and only world championship, the creator of what many now consider halo heaven. Yet recently, a blog called "Halos Heaven" conducted a Mike Scioscia poll that asked: "Is he toast?"

OAKLAND - Doc Rivers sounded as if he has been forced to contemplate his future as coach of the Clippers. With so many NBA players around the league saying they wouldn't play for controversial Clippers owner Donald Sterling in the wake of racist comments he allegedly made, Rivers was asked if he needed to hear something from someone within the organization in order for him to continue working for Sterling. "Don't know yet," Rivers responded. "I'm just going to leave it at that.

Central Michigan's basketball coach was suspended without pay for using a racially derogatory term in front of his players. Keith Dambrot began serving the four-day suspension Thursday, university spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith said Friday. Dambrot allegedly used racial slurs in front of his team late in the season in reference to assistant coach Derrick McDowell, who is black. In a statement released Wednesday, Dambrot said the term was "not used in any racially offensive manner.

DALLAS -- Lindy Ruff did an outstanding job in coaching the Stars to the playoffs for the first time since 2008, taking a team that's almost evenly split between veterans and kids and molding it into a competitive group that has pushed the top-seeded Ducks hard throughout the teams' first-round playoff series. For Ruff, who spent the previous 14-plus seasons coaching the Buffalo Sabres, the playoffs have provided a continuing education about his own team and his players' abilities and character.

Win one for the fat man? Win one for the Holtzer? Could anyone have dreamed, even a month ago, that the 1996 college football season would come down to this? To a USC team turned upside-down by three consecutive defeats and speculation that its coach is about to be turned loose? To a Notre Dame team whose coach is walking away, virtually without explanation, from the sport's best job? Yet that's exactly how the script reads when Notre Dame (8-2) plays USC (5-6) tonight at a sold-out Coliseum.

The children at the junior high in Carson listened carefully as Frank Lubin, a former U.S. Olympic basketball player, spoke during a recent career day. Lubin told the youngsters to stay in school and to avoid drugs and alcohol because they had the potential to be Olympic athletes. When Lubin was finished, they pestered him for autographs. It was the repeat of a scene from the early part of the century.

Seattle Mariners' scout Myron Pines has a different perspective when it comes to evaluating potential major league players. While most scouts are content to sit in the stands and watch, Pines gets a closer look--from the dugout. Pines is in his seventh season as baseball coach at Santiago High School, where he helped turn around a struggling program. Last year, he led the Cavaliers to their first outright league championship since 1969.

Michael Abraham fidgets on a steel bunk, unable to sleep because of the chain-saw snoring and suffocating flatulence of three fellow inmates sharing a tiny cubicle with him in federal prison. His wife and two small children are biding time at his parents' home 80 miles away in Portland. His once-promising career as a women's college basketball coach is in ruins. But Abraham, 41, knows it could be much worse.

It appeared a case of school property defacement, likely the work of a prankster. Years ago, an assistant coach at Claremont McKenna College came upon an old desk while cleaning out a weight room in the athletic department. The culprit had carved into the wood, the way lovebirds might scrawl a heart into a tree. Except this inscription was curious: it read "I Love This College" and was signed "John Zinda." The assistant reported what he thought was an act of mockery to the football coach.

JUDGING from recent studies of the college recruiting process, there are more than a few sports stage parents out there. I should know. I was one of them. Yet beyond being constantly told to back off by friends who were frenetically pushing their kids in school, I found scant little coaching for parent coaches. Some good things came of my fanaticism. The boys and I spent an enormous amount of time together, and in the end this helped nurture a level of intimacy and comfort with one another that I am not sure we would have had if I had spent those hours at my computer.

SAN FRANCISCO - As the Clippers were preparing for Game 4 of their first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors, they found themselves also having to deal with allegations that Clippers owner Donald Sterling made racist comments about African Americans. Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, who were the only Clippers players who spoke with the media after practice Saturday, both stuck with the theme that they were "focused" on playing Sunday and were only "here to talk about the Golden State Warriors.

The underachieving Washington Capitals began making changes at the top Saturday, firing Adam Oates as coach and not renewing the contract of George McPhee, the general manager and a vice president. The NHL club made the announcements in a statement Saturday morning. The Capitals missed the playoffs for the first time since 2007 despite having the league's top goal scorer in Alex Ovechkin, who scored 51 times this season. Oates had one year left on his three-year contract. The Capitals were 38-30-14 this season and went 65-48-17 under Oates in his two seasons.

The NCAA and its member institutions often refer to "student-athletes," but the front side of the term isn't often highlighted in a sports section. We asked officials from the Southland's Division I universities to point us toward their best and brightest - the teams that made classroom performance a priority. Here is what we found at Northridge: Above the desk on the left side of his office is an acknowledgment of what Marcelo Leonardi considers to be his proudest accomplishment as Cal State Northridge's women's water polo coach.

Sometimes, coaches make lineup decisions based on a gut feeling. When those decisions backfire, their gut feelings can become spasms of tension, anxiety, and early-playoff-exit regrets. Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau, fighting a reputation of being unable to lead talented teams in Washington and Anaheim deep into postseason play, made several decisions Friday that proved pivotal in the 6-2 victory that gave the Ducks a 3-2 lead over the Dallas Stars in the teams' opening-round playoff series.

There are two ways to look at UCLA's spring game. There's the cleats-on-the-ground view: "We need to make sure we lock into everything," safety Anthony Jefferson said. "We need to make sure we're assignment perfect. " And there's a coach's big-canvas brush strokes: "I wouldn't put stock at all in the results of a spring game, who plays well and who doesn't," Coach Jim Mora said. "It's just a piece to the puzzle. " The Bruins wrap up spring practice with a scrimmage at the StubHub Center on Saturday at 5 p.m. Mora said he wanted a "real game" and divided the teams along traditional lines - first-team offense against first-team defense, second-team offense against second-team defense.

Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau's decisions to pull Teemu Selanne from Game 3 after Dallas' third goal, then make the 43-year-old retiring veteran a healthy scratch in Game 4 didn't fly with Selanne's 18-year-old son, Eemil. After hearing his dad was to be scratched in favor of 21-year-old Emerson Etem on Wednesday, the younger Selanne posted this on his Twitter account that afternoon: “ROSTER MOVE: Bruce Boudreau has been reassigned to Norfolk Admirals (AHL).” The elder Selanne not only had to deal with the professional disappointment but handle a family matter too. “Just like a box of chocolates ... you never know,” Teemu Selanne said Thursday.

In a time of budget cuts, teacher layoffs and campus closures, at least one position in high school education is in such demand that salaries are skyrocketing well into six digits: Football coach. Hoping to bolster school spirit and create an atmosphere that will attract new students and benefactors, private-school administrators from south Orange County to the outskirts of Ventura are digging deep to structure financial packages for coaches that dwarf those of even the best-trained, experienced teachers.

Keegan Featherstone has been hired to coach girls' volleyball and Bridgette Reyes has been hired to direct girls' basketball at Torrance Bishop Montgomery. Featherstone was a standout volleyball player during her days at Manhattan Beach Mira Costa and UC Irvine. Reyes was a league MVP during her playing days at Irvine Woodbridge and later an NAIA co-player of the year at Vanguard. Eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

Will D'Antoni be back to coach the Lakers? The franchise has yet to announce the future of Coach Mike D'Antoni, but assistant Dan D'Antoni may be moving on to coach at Marshall University. Mike had been linked to his alma mater but on Thursday, Mike Hamrick, athletic director at Marshall, tweeted Dan will be the Thundering Herd's next coach. I am proud to announce that Dan D'Antoni will be the next head basketball coach at Marshall University. #THEHERD pic.twitter.com/LxpD13FFnR - Mike Hamrick (@TheHerdAD)

Gregg Popovich has become just the third person ever to be named the NBA coach of the year three times. Popovich, who coached the San Antonio Spurs to a league-best 62-20 record, joins Don Nelson and Pat Riley in that elite group. He also won the honor in 2003 and 2012. The Spurs have won at least 50 games in 16 of Popovich's 18 seasons at the helm, including the last 15 straight. Phoenix's Jeff Hornacek was runner-up in the voting and Chicago's Tom Thibodeau finished third.